Pillow Talk and New Year's Eve
by Aigoopi
Summary: Ally is sick; it results in a nightly visitor with a bout of nervousness, serious intentions, sharing beds and accordant consequences. Oh, the joy of teenage hormones!


Title: Pillow Talk and New Year's Eve (1/1)  
Genre: romcom, drabble?  
Rating: mostly harmless  
Couple: Austin/Ally  
Summary: Ally has a midnight visitor with a bout of stage fright and serious intentions.

Notes: That's a New Year's Eve fanfic I came up with. I finished it after having a bit too much sparkling wine; please chalk each and any inconsistency up to that. It started out as a drabble and is now this. Oh, well.

* * *

Something had changed the past few weeks. The past few months. It happened slowly and gently with gazes and glimpses here and there, with a hesitant kind of distance, with deliberately spoken words, with shy smiles.

Austin had never been shy around anyone, especially Ally. He had been all over the place from the very beginning. He had been touchy around her, had pulled and twirled her and danced with her and hugged her. He barely blushed and rarely stuttered. He never scratched the back of his head and backed away.

But that had been happening lately. She couldn't exactly pinpoint when it happened, but during their piano sessions, he was uncharacteristically quiet. He listened to her and nodded and when she explained to him a new song, he concentrated on each word, but he didn't say much.

He was glad to sing her songs, was glad to perform them, but sometimes, she caught him watching her when she watched him. She just talked to him, but he stared at her as if she was performing; as if she was some artist on a stage.

Ally couldn't place that look. She once asked him, but he just laughed and begged her to continue. She did, but his shyness spoke. He circled her as if she was some porcelain balancing on a stick or something, ready to break.

He let her talk more, she realized, and he listened to her more, but he stopped talking to her. He just sat there and took in every word she said. It started to unnerve her. It started to unnerve her that he wouldn't be bored by anything she said, that he didn't try to change the subject anymore when she talked about music theory, that he didn't try and drag her to the cinema to see swam bride when she told him about a particular combination of notes and rhythm.

And then, New Year's arrived and with it, the concert. He was nervous, she could tell. He was still happy and glad to perform, but he was happy in a way that seemed almost manic, so she knew he was nervous. And his stopped talking to her after their latest conversation about a song.

Despite the fact that it was a good song, a great song even, Austin started to slip away. She didn't understand. She was sure it would be a great pop song. Not as repetitive as the other songs he had done and a little bit more complicated, she was sure, but Ally thought it would catapult him toward the sphere of the more grown up artists - and he couldn't be a teen idol forever, right?

So something more complex was good, right? But apparently, he didn't think so.

So while she was brooding over why he seemed to be so quiet around her, she hid under her mother's blanket, a flashlight in her hand, her book in her other. She put down little notes - bits and pieces of lyrics and notes and bits and pieces of her mind. Mostly about Austin, partly because of confusion.

When the storm outside threw another wave of rain oer the roof, she pulled the blanket more over her head. She felt hot and slightly sweaty and her head was like a huge steam machine, while her nose was swollen.

Ill around a week before Christmas. Yay.

Chaos reigned outside. She could hear the rain drumming on the roof and the wind pulling on her windows.

She had to go to sleep. With all that noise going on around her, it was impossible to work - or form a clear thought at that. She placed the book onto her nightstand and slipped deeper into her bed.

The wind really tore at her windows, she thought and just as she reached for the night lmap, something drummed against her window. In a regular beat.

She looked up - and outside, in the darkness before her window, sat Austin, his face pressed against the glass, waving frantically with one hand.

For a moment, she didn't realize it was him. She screamed and tumbled out of the bed, taking both blanket and pillow with her. The beating continued and Ally, in her heap of bed clothes, just lay on the floor for a moment, gathering her breath. Then, with some annoyance, she got up. More angry at herself than at Austin, she stalked over to the window and ripped it open.

Not a good idea. Coolness, rain, wind and Austin fell inside, the latter like a wet sack of potatoes.

She quickly closed the window again.

Austin was still a wet mess on the carpet.

"What, by all that is sacred, are you doing here?" she asked him, but Austin just groaned against the floor. Then he rolled over and stared up at her.

"It took me almost fourty hours from my house to your house," he said.

"You climbed my house! In the middle of the night!" Ally said.

"Fourty minutes." He motioned to the left side of his body. "Your house." His hands swung over to the right side of his body. "My house. Fourty minutes. Can you believe it? It's the deluge out there."

Ally sighed impatiently. "It's still the middle of the night and you still climbed up to my window, frightening me to death, I might add." She walked over to her wardrobe and picked out a towel. "What are you doing here?"

He sat up from the floor, leaving a small pool of water behind. Taking the towel from her, he slowly started to dab himself. Then he shook his head like a small puppy, sending droplets all over her room.

"Hey!" She protested, took the towel from him and quickly put it over his head.

"Hey," he grinned up at her through wild strands of her and the darkness of the towel. "I came to see you. I brought you medicine."

"Now?"

"Yes." Austin easily got to his feet and started to dry his hair. "Someone should, when your dad's away."

He un-shouldered his backpack. Inside was a thermo bottle with tea, gooey porridge made by his mother and a small container with soup inside.

She tried hard not to look impressed when he unpacked his items. "I repeated my question: Now?" she asked. She shook her head. "You shouldn't have come. It's almost a tropical storm out there and it's dangerous to leave the house."

"I know," Austin said. Was that a smirk on his face? "And I guess I can't go back, so maybe … you could give me some dry clothes?"

"Do you expect some of my clothes to fit you?" Ally asked.

"What about your dad?"

"My dad can't catch you in my room," Ally said, "so you have to be quiet. God!" She threw her hands up in the air. "A boy in my house in the middle of the night! He will kill you! And then he will kill me!"

"Ally, I'm really starting to get a little bit cold here," Austin told her. He shook visibly. "Clothes, maybe, please?"

She let her hands sink to her sides and looked back into the wardrobe. "I have a pair of shorts you can wear as boxer shorts - and maybe a t-shirt, but I don't have a proper pajama for you."

"It'll do," Austin said and disappeared in the bathroom down the hallway. When he came back, dressed in a t-shirt that was a little bit too tight and his boxer shorts, Ally was already in bed. When she saw him, she lifted her blanket to cover her smile.

The t-shirt was pink and the boxer shorts were covered with trucks.

He sat down on the bed, rustled for something, then handed her the chicken soup. She ate it obediently and after the first sip, she realized how hungry she was.

"Slowly," he laughed when she diminished the soup, then the porridge. Afterwards, he made her swallow some cough syrup that tasted like mint and honey. She felt better after food and fluids, but tiredness started to settle in.

Austin flipped off the main light and padded back to her bed to switch off the light on her nightstand. While she watched him pad through the room, she threw a gaze at her couch by the desk.

He always slept there whenever they had a sleepover, but it was awfully close to the window with the raging storm outside - and she had hoarded all the blankets. He was going to be cold.

_He's your best friend. He's your best friend. It won't be weird. It won't be weird._

She almost clobbered down the snickering little hormone-driven voice that continued to live on in the depth of her heart. The room mate of the thing that died last: Hope.

"Austin." She pressed her eyes shut. She took a deep breath. Her courage gathered to a small, shaky tower, ready to face the fearful walls around her heart.

_Just seize the opportunity. He's been talking more to you today than during the last three weeks combined._

She smiled weakly. "If you don't try anything," she scooped slightly away toward the wall. "I'll share."

Austin stared at her. Then at the bed. Then back at her. "If _you _don't try anything, I'll happily oblige," he said, suddenly grinning.

"I'm sick," she protested immediately, blushing and scooted away further. Behind her, the light was flicked off.

He slipped under the blanket. Ally felt the bed shift under his weight, then for a moment nothing moved. Had he really slipped under the blanket with her or was he just sitting there, because she couldn't see him in the darkness and among the mountains of pillow.

Then he moved again and suddenly he was right next to her. Not touching her, but she could hear his breath going evenly and feel his warmth radiating.

"Hey," Austin whispered to her in the darkness.

"Hey," she whispered back and could make out his outline, and moments later his eyes and his nose. He smiled, his teeth bright even in the middle of the night. While she was at ease around him, even with him in his bed, she felt the giddyness deep down.

They had hugged so many times, leaned against each other in train rides and plane flights to concerts so many times, were pressed against each other on that small piano bench composing, but they had never hugged, laying down.

They had never touched while being in a bed, or, more precisely, Ally's bed.

But Ally wanted to, she realized, but she fought that part like she did so many things when Austin was involved.

Their relationship was not _like that. _Maybe it was never going to be _like that. _They would stay friends forever, partners forever, but nothing more. Everything else, every _more _was attached to many dangerous things, like breaking up, ruining careers, ruining reputations, and most importantly, every hope concerning the _more _was attached to the possibility that Austin could reject her.

He had never made a move toward her romantically. And Ally knew how these moves looked like, because she had observed them with Cassidy, with Brooke, with every blond bimbo type he liked so much.

He had never made those moves toward her, so it was good that she could see her favorite guy in the world in the darkness and was glad he didn't attempt to touch her, because that touch in those kind of circumstances would break her; the more careful he would touch her, the more she would break.

Just companionship to ease his nerves and for her, to recover. New Year's Eve on Time Square. It was his dream. And everyone was entitled to a little nervousness on the eve of achieving their life's dream, right?

"I can see you thinking," Austin laughed softly.

She broke out of her thoughts. "You can?"

"Yes. When you do, I can see the gears turning behind your eyes. It's sexy." He smiled.

_Sexy? Where did that come from? _But she decided to stay calm and friendly and not panic, because if both of them panicked because of freaking New Year's Eve, the concert would turn out to be a disaster.

"It's dorky and geeky," she said. "And unfortunately thinking doesn't have such a great reputation these days."

"I like it," he said. He tilted his head as if to look more properly at her. "You will always be more intelligent than the rest of us, you know?" She opened her mouth to disagree, but he wouldn't let her. "It's true. And when you sometimes look at me and you are dorky and geeky and dance as if you have some spastic bout, and then switch toward thinking the next moment, it's like falling toward you."

_Falling toward you,_ he said. _Not falling for you. He also accused you of having a spastic bout when you dance_, another part of her mind reminded her. _That's not exactly romantic._

_Shut up,_snapped at that part of her mind.

"You seem like the rest of us, but when you think and when I read your lyrics and listen to your music, I realize that you are not," Austin said. "You are better." He raised his hand in the darkness and touched the side of her face. "Thanks for sticking with us."

"Austin -"

"No, I mean it," he said. "Thanks for being there, for putting up with me, with all the craziness. Thanks for giving me shelter anytime, not just now, but always."

"I've never given you shelter before like this," Ally said, frowning, trying to chase away the squealing little fan girl in her mind that was pouring out her heart toward the fact that the most beautiful, talented boy was in bed with her and touching her.

The feeling made her soul shake so hard, she could already feel her heart crack. This was not good, _so _not good, but why did it feel so good then?

He said something. His mouth moved something she shouldn't be staring at it. She looked up at Austin, a little bit shaken.

"Sorry?"

He laughed. "I said, it's a metaphor. You giving me shelter," he said. "Like that thing with the goose, remember?" He grinned happily. "I've been learning. Do you know what onomatopoeia is?"

"Of course, it's a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes," she said without thinking.

He paused, then scratched his chin. "Well, I know now too," he said meekly. "I've been reading, y'know? Real books, I mean, not Cheetah Beat. So … I can keep up with you in the future."

"Oh, Austin. You'll always be able to keep up with me," she said. "It's me having trouble following you."

The words provoked something in him she couldn't quite place. Which was odd, because usually she could read him like a book. He was always so open with his feelings and opinions, but now, something fluttered across his face she had never seen before.

It was … something similar to disbelief mixed with a bit of pain.

"Austin?" she asked, but he had recoiled into a sort of shell she never knew existed.

"Let's go to sleep?" he proposed.

Ally studied him for a moment and could find anything helpful in his face. He just looked at her, his face blank, the smile there, but empty.

"Sure," she said, hoping he would eventually tell her.

She watched him close his eyes and he dozed off in a matter of moments. Figures. Can sleep anywhere, is never bothered by anything enough. She stared at him for a long time until she finally dozed off too.

Her last thoughts were with the reason why he had come to her tonight - and why his behaviour was so strange during the last weeks. He never had, never in the middle of the night, or at some other time, come to her because of nerves, because of nervousness or to nurse her.

In the past, it had always been the other way round. This made her realize that she didn't exactly know _why _he was here. But Austin was vocal about anything he did, so she knew he would eventually tell her. He had to - because she knew, otherwise this entire thing would make her go mad.

With these kind of thoughts, she fluttered into a superficial uneasy sleep. She rolled around several times, not finding a comfortable spot, then drifted off into a land where she wandered around pickles and pancakes. When she drifted toward consciousness the next time, she tried to shift again, but realized she couldn't.

Austin had clutched her desperately, one hand around her mid section, his face pressed against the spot behind her ear. He was breathing unevenly and mumbled in his sleep.

Ally moved a bit away to look properly at him without squinting. It proved to be a difficult venture, as he had her iron clasped and didn't intend to let her go. He was having a nightmare or he was getting sick, too; she didn't know which one it was, but there was a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead and his breath was coming in little puffs.

Ally managed to unclasp one arm to lift it to his face. For a moment, she hesitated. This was crossing a line, she knew. This was not something friends did, even really, really good friends. Well, maybe, but certainly not in a bed in a compromising situation like this.

He clutched her tighter and Ally sighed quietly. Then she touched his forehead and gently traced down to the spot between his eyebrows and lower, down the bridge of his nose and to its tip. She hesitated there, because Austin had stiffened and frowned, as if he was concentrating on something very important.

"It's alright," she whispered to him. "Everything will be alright. I'll always be there." And then, to shoot beyond the lines of inappropriate-ness, she let her fingers wander down the nose to his philtrum and over his lips, where she paused and stared.

She liked his lips, she decided. They were soft and looked just … perfect for …

Clenching her eyes shut, she heard a faint cracking sound coming from her heart. Pulling away her finger, she shifted as much as was possible given Austin was wrapped around her like a big piece of warm, human bubble gum. Even their feet were entangled and he just wouldn't let go. Finally, after some wiggling, she let her head fall back onto the pillow. With a withering glance toward the mop of blond hair dominating most of her view, she finally, hesitantly, scooted closer.

Moving closer to him made her position much more comfortable than moving away from him, she realized. She knew he was going to tease her for that in the morning, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She was too tired and … a small part of her admitted that being so close to him, despite the ever-present sound of a breaking heart, felt incredibly, indescribably, irrevocably good.

It was like hugging sunlight. He felt so warm, so alive … and he smelled so good … and in a matter of moments, Ally Dawson was off to dreamland.

* * *

Ally woke very early the next morning. It was almost night, but the horizon had taken on a beautiful shade of dark lavender.

Ally felt incredibly, indescribably, irrevocably rested the next morning. And she felt at ease, something she rarely felt, because she was, by nature, a worrier.

When she blinked toward the sunlight streaming into the room, she didn't understand what it was she was staring at. It was skin-colored and moved a bit and she felt hot hair coming from it. When her eyes traveled up, she found herself staring at a pair of lips, then at a nose and when she moved her head, she was able to meet the very awake, very smiling gaze of her best friend.

Let the teasing begin.

Instead, she felt the hug around her tighten and the boy smiled down at her. "Good morning," he whispered and suppressed a yawn. She felt all his muscles ripple against her body - and suddenly she was wide! Awake!

She pulled up her blanket until it covered most of her face.

Austin chuckled. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding," she mumbled through the fabric.

"Why?"

"You spend the night here," she said and immediately felt her entire blood rush to her head. Oh, the implications! Should her father find out, oh, worse, should her _mother _find out. They would probably be delighted and she would never hear the end of it!

"So you are a healthy young woman after all! My _apes _were faster on the uptake that _you were_!"

Austin gently pulled the blanket from her face. "Nothing happened," he said. He reached out and brushed a stray lock from her face. "You don't need to worry."

She gulped heavily and tried to fight down her panic. "Are you still nervous because of New Year's Eve?"

The shadow immediately returned to his face. She felt a wall going up. A very transparent, hardly noticeable wall, but a wall nonetheless. Something was up.

Austin didn't reply instantly. He just stared at her and she wondered if something was going on she didn't notice. "I'm better," he finally said and this time, she was able to read him like a book. It was obvious that he hid something.

"Austin," she said. "No matter what it is, you can always tell me, y'know?"

His face twitched a bit, as if he was hiding a small bit of pain. "Ally …"

"You know that, right?" she emphasized. "I've noticed that you have been sort of distant toward me lately, but you know that whatever it is, you can always talk to me."

Austin Moon held her glance, then looked away. She felt his grip around her tighten and when their eyes met again, she noticed a new-found clarity in his. "I've been thinking," he said. "Really hard and ..." He took a deep breath. "I wondered if I should get a new songwriter."

Ally stared at him, shell-shocked. "What?" She mouthed, then she had to try again to find her voice. "What?" She tried to move away from him, but he wouldn't let her.

"It's not like I'm ending our friendship," he hurried to say.

She had never ever noticed that he was unhappy with her work. He had never said a word. He had performed as always: With great enthusiasm, a stage presence like a shining beam of light.

Was that it? The reason for his silence?

"Is it because you don't like my recent songs? I can write different ones! I can -"

"No," he managed to say. "No! It's really not that, it's just … I'll be a popstar. A teen icon and you, you will be -" He sighed.

It shook her immediately and the clarity hit her like a sledge hammer. She knew what was wrong and her deepest fears came tumbling down on her. The reason why he always hit on blond bimbos. The reason why he liked people like Brooke or Cassidy.

_I'm not hip. I'm not cool enough. I'm … _If she couldn't move away from him, she could turn, so she did. She didn't want him to see her eyes. The watery shine there was starting to get suspicious.

He immediately noticed her changing demeanour and he hugged her close to his chest, but she weakly, desperately fought him away. "No," she managed shakily, but he continued hugging her.

"Ally, you are perfect! I swear to you, you are, but let's face it -"

"Don't!" She told him quickly. "Please," she breathed heavily. _I can do this! Heart, please don't break yet! I can do this! _"Don't say it. I can't stand it."

"... you are too good for me," he finished the sentence lamely and somewhat confused.

Ally froze and then tears, still spilling, just kept on going. "What?"

"I'll like my music," she heard him say, his voice close to her ear. "I really do, but it's _pop. _And you with your talent, you'll do greater things than that. You'll compose opera, you'll be a great pianist, you'll be … amazing and great and wonderful and …" He sighed heavily. "One day, I won't be able to keep up with you, so … I'm letting you go."

There was a very long, decided pause and Austin thought the best way to fill it was to say:

"I just wanted to be close to you for once, before …"

Ally Dawson was many things. She was nerdy above else, and maybe intelligent even above that. She was friendly and caring, passionate and gentle, had a sense of humor that bordered on ridiculous on one side and self-deprecating on the other. She loved her friends, she was never jealous or selfish. She was shy and dorky and clumsy and she rarely - _rarely_ - got angry. She snapped at people and used _the _voice, but she was barely ever truly angry.

But this time … it was different, because Austin had done something stupid.

She turned, her hair a mess, her eyes full of tears, her expression angry and hurt. "_You _are letting _me _go? Where the hell did that entire idea _come _from?"

"Did you just say 'hell'? Did you just _curse_?"

Ally ignored him. "You think you are letting me go?" she asked, her anger rising and with it her voice. "Well then, newsflash, you won't be able to get rid of me! If you try to run away, I'll follow you! If you try to hide, I'll find you! Remember when you stole my song and I followed you into the well-guarded studio area and broke into the eight o'clock news?"

He just managed to nod weakly.

"Just imagine what I'm able to do now that I know you better!" She accentuated every word with a poke against his chest. "You are not. Going. To get. Rid of me!"

"I'll slow you down," he tried to argue, but she wouldn't let him.

"Then I'll help you accelerate," she answered. She had calmed a bit, but there was still anger in her voice. "Seriously, Austin, that's the most stupid thing I have ever heard you say! What's gotten into you?"

Austin didn't answer. He just fidgeted and played with the blanket's seam.

"Austin?" she asked and tried to catch his eyes.

He avoided her quite spectacularly, but at least managed to speak. He took a deep breath to gather courage. It didn't work. He looked up but didn't meet her eyes. Instead he looked at her hair, at her locks that curled under her chin and on her collarbone. He picked one up and started to play with it between his index finger and thumb.

Ally watched him curiously as he did so. "Austin?"

"I'm not good," he started. "With words, I mean. Like … you …" He trailed off and took another deep, shaky breath. Then the words started to come out.

"_I love the things you do_  
_It's how you do the things you love_  
_But now it's a love song_  
_It's a love song."_

There was a long determined pause between them filled with just their breathing and with Austin playing with her hair. He could feel her stare at him, trying to get him, trying to understand him. He was grateful she didn't run.

"That's not how the lyrics go," she finally whispered.

"That's how they go now," he whispered back, then looked up at her.

Her face was earnest and serious, but her eyes were suddenly wet and couldn't hold all the silent tears. They threatened to spill and finally ran down her face in long streams.

"Hey," he mumbled, suddenly concerned. He reached up, cradled her face and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. "Hey, I didn't mean - it's not a bad thing - it won't change anything, if you don't want to, I just wanted to let you know -"

She covered his hands with hers. "You are the greatest dimwit I ever had the misfortune to meet," she whispered hotly, then she tried to move away.

He wouldn't let her. He just managed to grasp her wrist and pull her back. She squeaked and heavily fell against his chest with a thud, tumbling back against the bed. There was a moment of wrestling between them, mixed with desperation on Ally's part and sudden rising determination on Austin's.

She pinned him down, pressing her weight against his upper body. She was still crying and Austin knew she was going to run.

"Stay there," she managed, pushing him down, trying to prevent him from moving. "Don't come near me." It was slightly ironic, because it was almost impossible to come any closer.

His chest, his entire body rose. She pushed down against him but he remained unimpressed. Despite her best efforts and her entire weight, he just sat up, taking her with him, unimpressed at all that she was good at wrestling, but ultimately was just such a lightweight.

"Austin, don't, just stay where you -" Her voice failed her when he leaned forward and placed the softest, lightest kiss on her nose.

A painful sob escaped her lips and her eyes closed. More tears escaped.

His arms snaked around her waist to pull her closer and prevent her from escaping, as he kissed her cheeks, each gently, carefully to remove the tears. His nose brushed hers and she felt him hover closer to her mouth. Their lips didn't touch but she felt his breath, his warmth and his smell surrounding her.

Her eyes still closed, she moved forward. The kiss was gentle and warm and very still. She cursed herself for not having more experience and not really knowing what to do. When he didn't move at all, all her strings broke.

She was obviously doing it wrong. He had tensed all over, his hands on her hips almost dug into her skin and _shouldn't he be moving?_

Embarrassed and red up to the roots of her hair, she pulled back. She was about to wriggle out of his arms, when he followed her and caught her lips again. And this time, he _did _move, softly nipping as to not to scare her away. There was a long moment where he again didn't move, but then pushed against her. She had to straightened up to accommodate his oncoming lips and push back a little. Otherwise the two of them would just fall over.

She felt his arms tightened around her - and his kisses started to heat up. He _liked _kissing her, she realized and the idea rolled as a wave of heat down her spine and knotted up into her stomach, threatening to bust.

Austin felt her tremble as he kissed her once, twice, but when she started to mirror his movements shyly, it fueled his feelings even more. He knew he shouldn't - God alone knew how much experience she had and considering her shyness, it wasn't much, but she felt warm and soft and wet. It was difficult to stay away from her, to not get addicted.

But she felt like sunshine on his skin: Warm and comfortable - and hot. But before kissing Ally, he didn't know how to hug sunshine. Now he did. He nudged at her lips, trying to open them and Ally reacted to his ministrations with a soft, muffled squeal.

Whatever was burning in his chest and stomach started to grow and reach lower. Having Ally in his arms was like putting fire on gasoline.

He pulled and lifted her into his lap. The closeness of their bodies was suddenly maximized, but Ally pulled away.

He immediately tried to follow but she backed away further. He knew she would slip out of his lap and to prevent her from doing at least that, he didn't try to kiss her again.

"Ally?"

"We can't do this," she mumbled. She couldn't look at him, so instead she stared at his collar bone.

"Kissing?" Austin asked hoarsely. "I'm sorry I got carried a bit away. It's just -" He wanted to comb his fingers through his hair, but it meant less touching her, so he didn't. "That was my most amazing kiss," he ended shakily.

She looked up at him. "It was?"

"Yes!" Austin said. He immediately leaned forward, but again, she ducked her head away.

"Austin, we can't! It's not like I don't think it's not going to work out and it's not that I don't like you, but you just come into my room, slip into my bed and start kissing me like that and God knows what else is happening after that and I really don't have much experience kissing anyone and you probably have loads and I don't know what to do with my hands all this while, let alone with the rest of my body and you seem -"

"Ally!" he stopped her. He laughed gently. "Wow, wow, slow down! There are four bases and we just covered the first! And I really don't have any intention to cross over to the second one."

He thought about it for a moment, especially when Ally looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I do," he admitted, not quite as coyly as Ally would have preferred, "But you are probably going to bail on me, so I'm happy with just kissing you."

He leaned in again.

"You made it into my bed during your first try," she dryly said before their lips could touch.

Austin sighed and moved away. For a moment, he wondered if he should feel embarrassed, but then he settled for the truth.

"And I got to kiss you," he said with a cocky smile.

She slapped his shoulder in response. "So you came here with your puppy eyes to get into my bed and make out with me? What was that thing all about?"

"I didn't plan it!" he defended himself. Their eyes met again, even though hers were angry. Austin was happy nonetheless though. She was looking at him again and some of her shyness was gone. "I just … rahhh!" He cursed under his breath. "It's stupid!"

"It sure looks like it," Ally said. But she didn't move away. "Care to enlighten me?"

He pointed. "That! See?"

"See what?"

"_Care to enlighten me?_" he repeated. "That's stuff I would never ever say. Nor would Dez or Trish. And last time when you composed a song for me, you explained to me stuff about notes and music and theory - I didn't understand that. It was like another language. And that word you said in English class two days ago? Andytaton? Angetaten?"

"Adynaton?" Ally asked, confused.

"Yes. That. _Ah. Di. Na. Ton_," he repeated, then sighed. "I'm not stupid. I know I'm not. But you, Ally." He looked up at her. His eyes were shining as he removed a dark lock from her forehead. "You are brilliant. A genius. You not only compose songs and write lyrics for them, you also arrange them. You know stuff about music I never will. And I'm not exactly an opera singer, y'know? You won't be happy writing pop music for a teen sensation for the rest of your life."

During his words, a smile had started to break her face. When he had finished, she had melted. "Oh, Austin. First of all, whether of not you'll be a popstar or an opera singer, I will always be your friend. And second, you won't be a teen sensation for the rest of your life - and my songs will accommodate to that. And third," the smile vanished from her face as quickly as it had appeared. "That's the most stupid thing you ever came up with!" she said as she whacked him. "I will never, ever leave you! You made me love you and now you'll have to stick with me, whether you like it or not!"

Austin stared at her, his face completely frozen under the onslaught of a million thoughts, all of the headlined by _Did she really say that?_She stared back with a shaky kind of courage. He had to answer her, quickly, as she braved his gaze.

"You don't know me very well," Ally said slowly and the tears threatened to fall again. "Do you?"

He brushed all her strands from her face to hold her chin properly in his hands. Then he pecked her, then kissed her, once, twice, every stroke of his lips deeper, more urgent than the last. She wasn't able to answer as ferociously as he did, but he felt her tremble and wimper under him and knew she enjoyed it - and was probably completely overwhelmed.

Her shyness was one of her most adorable traits, he found, and he looked forward to see her blush, to being adorably earnest, to making her squeal - when the time would come.

She was radiantly beautiful to him as he lowered her down onto the bed. Beautiful and oh so small. She was so tiny, he could wrap herself around her and protect her and never let her go.

When he tugged at her pjs, he heard her mumble against his lips: "You promised," she reminded him gently.

"I'll behave," he mumbled back and smiled against her lips. "Because I love you."

He grinned happily at her surprised face, at her wide eyes, at her tears, the only consistent thing that evening. He easily kissed all her fears away and made her think of other things. He nipped down her throat and enjoyed making her gasp and rendering her breath completely ragged.

"Behave," she gently reminded him and bucked up her hips.

Austin tore his lips immediately from her, his feelings suddenly centered around something completely different than her lips. His expression was partially shocked and Ally laughed softly.

"I'm inexperienced, but I read a lot of books," she said, her index finger trailing down his forehead, his nose, over his lips and down his chin. She laughed gently when he caught her lips again and resumed kissing her.

Who would have thought for things to end this beautifully? Who would have thought that Austin Moon, the golden boy, despite his name, would fall for her? Who would have thought that he got to keep her no matter what?

Who would have thought that he expected a kiss and got an Ally instead?

He didn't. He had given up all hope.

Fate manages to surprise you after all.

* * *

"G-Good morning," she managed. "I -," she wasn't sure what to say. If her father found her in bed with her best friend, no matter her age, she would have to ground herself again. "Dad returns from his business trip today. He will kill you!"

He laughed softly. "I actually already met him when I was preparing breakfast," she said, nodding toward the tray on her nightstand. "He didn't seem overly worried."

Horror, anger, then horror again and sheer surprise struck her in quick succession. "You - he - breakfast - _what_?!" she whispered loudly. She pulled her blanket up to her nose in embarrassment and shut her eyes tightly.

It didn't help much to digest the information. It was just too early in the morning for … well, _anything._

"He also called my parents," he said. "They'll be driving us to the airport to meet Jimmy and the rest of the gang."

Ally was trying hard to follow him. She was still stuck at 'breakfast'. "My dad knows you spend the night here?"

"And your mom."

"My mom?" she squeaked. _How the hell did that kind of information get halfway across the globe to quickly?_

"Skype," Austin added as a means to explain things.

_Of course. The joys of modern communication._

She tried to change the subject. "You brought me breakfast."

"I even _made _breakfast." He pecked her on the lips and watched as she blushed. It was the cutest sight. "If I want to keep you … healthy." The deliberate pause made her laugh.

He watched her eat for some seconds, then pulled out his cellphone and indicated to a text message.

"Trish also knows. From your mom, I think? She says she isn't surprised."

"Trish predicted this," Ally said, as she dug in. "From day one onwards."

"You should have believed her," Austin said and wiped a tiny sheen of jam from her cheek. "Because I did."

It took Austin almost the entire morning to stop her from blushing. And the rest of their lives to make her blush again.

end (1/1)


End file.
